Chapter 12 - WHAT GRACE SAW
Grace returned with a hotel security employee.
The man had walked away before anyone could stop him.
She gave the photograph to the police.
On the back was a message.
YOU WERE WARNED TO STAY OUT OF THIS.
I stared at her.
“Warned when?”
Grace sat down.
“Two weeks ago.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“What happened?”
“Elise told me to stop asking questions about the west service road.”
“You were asking questions?”
“A delivery driver said it was open.
Martin’s schedule said it was closed.
I thought the instructions were wrong.”
“What did Elise say?”
“That she would handle it.
Then she told me people lose good jobs by making their employers uncomfortable.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Grace looked exhausted.
“Because you were getting married.
Because she smiled whenever you walked into the room.
Because I wasn’t sure I had anything except a bad feeling.”
I wanted to tell her I would have believed her.
But I remembered every excuse I had made for Elise.
I couldn’t honestly say it.
“On the floor,” I asked, “how did you know I was awake?”
“You pressed your thumb against my wrist when I said I was calling an ambulance.”
I hadn’t realized I had done it.
“Then I saw your eyes following her shoes.”
“Why tell me to stay still?”
“The photograph showed Elise passing a small black case to Daniel.
But there was something else in the background.”
“What?”
“A reflection in a parked car window.”
She pointed to the enlarged image.
A man stood behind Elise.
His face was distorted by the glass, but the coat was clear.
Dark gray.
A small pale mark near the lapel.
Owen had worn that coat at dinner.
The police enhanced the image enough to compare clothing.
It wasn’t a definitive identification.
It was a place to look.
Then Grace remembered another detail.
“I heard him upstairs.”
“Before the fall?”
She nodded.
“He said, ‘You only need to get him to the landing.’”
Every memory of that night shifted.
Elise hadn’t simply been waiting to see what happened.
She had been asked to bring me somewhere.
My phone rang.
The investigator had found an entry in the house’s service log.
May you like
Owen had left the property at eight-oh-eight.
Two minutes after I fell.
